38 deputies The Republicans vote against article 2 to show that the right is not the “crutch” of the government

The government thought it could count on the voices of the right for this pension reform, but Tuesday evening February 14, that was not the case. Article 2 establishing a “senior index” was rejected in the Assembly. We felt, since the resumption of the debates, the right really not seduced by this “senior index” on the air of “this will penalize our companies”. At the end of the evening, the president of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet announces the result: the “senior index” and article 2 are rejected by 256 votes against 203 and 8 abstentions.

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The Macronist majority could not count on all the voices of the right. 38 LR deputies out of the 61 in the group voted against and six abstained. Without them no majority. And here is the rest of the opposition, RN and rebellious, who are already dreaming of a right that would waver or even fail the pension reform. “The majority must expect further disappointments, said deputy RN Kévin Mauvieux. They realized this evening that it did not work with at least some of the Republican deputies. And that the Republicans were capable of turning against their master. We hope they will keep this courage until article 7, on the retirement age.”

Euphoria also on the left. The deputy LFI Antoine Léaument is final. “It is the demonstration that, including in the National Assembly, there was no majority to carry out this pension reform. It is time for Emmanuel Macron to step back.”

Hard to imagine a total rejection of the text

It’s actually a bit more complicated than that. Firstly because this “senior index”, many agree that it will be censored by the Constitutional Council anyway, because it would have nothing to do in a budget text. It is therefore inexpensive to vote against a measure that potentially cannot come into force. Then, if we look at the details of the votes, the president of the group, Olivier Marleix voted against this article 2. And yet, it is he, with Eric Ciotti, who is negotiating directly with Elisabeth Borne to weigh in on this reform. It is also he who tries to convince the recalcitrant LR deputies to vote for the text. Hard to imagine that he undermines his own work.

A right that rebels while Elisabeth Borne sent him pledges again on Tuesday. After several days of negotiation, the Prime Minister announced that a certain number of people who started early will not have to contribute 44 years as initially planned, but 43 years. Those who started at 15, 17 and 20 years old. “It allows us to strengthen the support of LR” confided a framework of the majority. Tuesday night’s vote was a counter-example. The right wanted to show that it was not the “crutch” of the government. Finally, remember that a vote against an article does not constitute a vote against an entire reform.